Welcome to 2020!

Portfolio Updates

New Site, New Skills

Logo & Branding Updates Inbound

CV Updates

DiRT 5 is Official

That's all for now. See you soon.

A Quick Update

Joining Codemasters as a Junior UI Artist is an amazing opportunity for me to hone my skills and work in the games industry. It is a dream first job and I feel really lucky to be working here, working alongside some true professionals and amazing people.

So what does this mean for this blog and my portfolio? Inevitably, there will be less activity on both my blog and portfolio as I am working to help create the user interface in an unannounced game. There will be updates to my blog when certain announcements are made about this game, along with smaller personal projects being added to my portfolio every so often.

So, for now that's all. See you soon.

In Short

I haven't posted much on here for a while, but I'm back today with an update on what's been happening. First things first what have I been doing? Mainly looking for a full-time job within the games industry, which I will elaborate on further in this blog post. Alongside this, I have been working on a new project, that I want to use to test what I can do in a short amount of time. This is again is a game UI project which focuses on the racing genre. Keep reading to find out more on these two topics as well as a few changes that will be happening to my portfolio.

One Quick Project

Last week I spent 3-4 days working on a concept project, to see how much I could get done in a short amount of time. With this project, I wanted to take a look at racing games that already existed, more specifically the F1 series and see how it could be improved in terms of the UI/UX. The two main areas I wanted to focus on was the main menu for the game along with the HUD while driving. I wanted to show how by just adding a little colour and consistency between the two could improve the overall UI. This is still in an unfinished state and will first be added to my portfolio as a work-in-progress piece, with updates throughout until complete.

Materials Removed

As I push to show my skills as a UI artist this means that I have to be constantly improving and showing my best/relevant work in my portfolio. With my specialisation being within UI design I feel that it is not needed to have materials created within Substance Designer shown off on my portfolio. The removal of the material section of my portfolio was just the first step as I have now gone on to remove a couple more pieces of work that I feel do not comply with this new vision and/or are not good enough anymore to be shown on my portfolio.

The Future

Now onto my biggest announcement. I am very happy to announce that starting September I will be working as part of a AAA gaming company. This will mean that there may be fewer updates to my portfolio and blog but I will strive to keep it up-to-date and featuring the projects I will be part of, as well as a couple of small projects within my spare time. I will reveal more closer to the time, as I still have some things to sort out but I am really excited about the future and development of new skills I can get with this company.

That's all for now. See you soon. 

In Short

There are a couple of new UI projects on my portfolio and I will be looking to start some other projects soon to keep it updated and fresh with content. Links to the projects are below. Now that I have graduated from university the next projects may be a little different from what has come before, more of what I want to focus on. Finally, there may be a few changes to social media and other platforms as I start to focus more on UI design and look to get a job within the games industry. Be sure to check out my new projects if you haven't already and continue reading for more information on what's next.

Links

Projects Complete - Now available on ArtStation!

If you haven't been following the recent activity on my website there are a couple of new projects to take a look at. The first being a quick look into a concept for a World War 2 Battle Royale, focusing on more of the in-game UI rather than the menus. The main aspect of this project was to explore the usability and how to display information on-screen in a non-obstructive way. There is a lot of information needed as a player playing a battle-royale game and with it being a popular mode at the moment it was a good way to test my self. Along with this, I also wanted to look into ways in which the player uses the UI and how I can speed this up, allow it to become muscle memory for the player. This lead to the implementation of an equipment wheel within the inventory screen allowing for quick switching between items without having to go into the boxes of items seen within some games.

The other project that I was working on is a game concept called Operation Blackout. With this project, I wanted to look into how different aspects of a game can affect/ change the UI design style. Some of these were the story, different game modes and player counts. So the main one is the story. I feel that the UI needs to reflect what is going on in-game and with this, the UI I have created is dark, modern and minimalistic. All values that would be shown throughout the game's story. But it can also be affected by the story in other ways, like when an EMP or hack happens within the game the UI is affected. Or a UI that is more built into the equipment a soldier is wearing, without a helmet visor there is little to no UI or 3d objects in-game like compasses can represent UI instead. Differences in game modes can also change how the UI is portrayed as the information needed for the player in the story and multiplayer can differ. The main thing that shows this differentiation in my work is whether a minimap is being shown. This leads to things like player count, in a single player game the user interface doesn't have to show much, if anything, to do with other player characters. Whereas when other players are added the player needs to know what is happening with their self along with the players around them. Be it, position or status like health, it affects what is needed to be shown to the player most commonly in the HUD.

You can see more on this in both these projects by clicking the links above. For the Operation Blackout game concept I also created a design document which can be found here:

https://danielrhodes.artstation.com/projects/zA9GR2?album_id=1097038

New Projects & Updates

So now that I have successfully completed my Games Design course at university I will now be looking for a more permanent job within the games industry. With this time I will be going on vacation for a little while, so there may be little updates on what's going on for a while. I will still be looking to keep my portfolio up-to-date with new content and new projects. With this sense of "freedom", I will be looking at creating projects that I really want to do. This means there may be some different styles of work that will be uploaded to my portfolio in the future and I look forward to sharing more soon.

That's all for now. See you soon.

In Short

This week I have been finishing up my VFX project and moving over to finalising my military environment project. Not much else really, it's been all focus on that over this week. If you're wanting a more detailed look into these two projects though, keep reading...

Progress Update

So let's talk about the main thing I have been doing over the weekend. Completing my VFX project. I have had some real fun creating this and it's a project I have seen as something I can have a laugh with. If you haven't already, watch the video above to view the final animation along with a really quick breakdown on how it was created. Warning: The voiceover in this video has been slightly broken. I will be looking to fix this at a later date.

You can also view the project document through the link below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gccDNf3DBawG4N9EAJTlmWnaHSg1bn_O

For this project, I also looked a little more into learning Adobe After Effects some more as the composition of the render was created and edited within this software. I will be looking to use a lot more of this software soon in terms of UI motion graphics and in future projects.

Now with one project finished all focus has moved to my military base project where I am creating what I am calling a game prototype. Two main areas are being focused on with this, that being a mostly finalised GUI experience & level one gameplay including a playable environment with animations and gameplay. Currently, I am finalising the GUI experience and will then be moving onto polishing the rest of the gameplay. I am hoping to have most of this done by the end of this week and have something a little more visual to share with you next week.

That's all for now. See you soon.

It's time for an update...

In Short

So I haven't really been posting for a while, what have I been doing? I have been progressing through my two main projects and making sure they will be ready for the upcoming deadlines. I have also been working on a couple of other things one of which I can talk about and one I am going to be pretty vague about just in case. Anyway, there's more like what's happening with the game jams? So continue reading to find out more.

Tic Tac Shooter (Working Title)

Game Jams

First things first where is the post about March's game jam game? The simple answer is that the game was never finished by our coders, so no playable game. But, there is something that came out of this because of what my role was for this game (UI Artist) I have the assets needed to show you what the game would have looked like. Below is an image of in-game along with a link to the project page where you can find out more about this game.

An update on this months game jam now. There isn't one. The society I am part of is not hosting one this month and as of writing, I am not sure about next month as it is deadline season at university at the moment so this may be for the best.

Project Update

Speaking about university, let's just take a quick look over what I've been doing.

So I have been looking to make my environment outside of my scene a little more believable than just a flat landscape. Using World Machine I have created a terrain a lot more dynamic and will be adding in extra assets like foliage natural to the area my environment is based around. I have also been working on various different GUI's for this project and will be looking to implement them soon. Along with these, I have also been spending these last two weeks creating a HUD & Interface design (not for this project) but something I have really enjoyed doing and will hopefully be crucial for my career in this industry. I can't really talk too much about this and I am not sure whether this work will ever make it to my site. But I can't wait to get feedback on this work.

Moving onto my robot animation, as you can see above. Everything is now set up for rendering out the final animation and moving into After Effects to add the final touches ready for my hand in next week.

As mentioned above deadlines are approaching so this may be the last post for a while until I have finished my final year mid-May. Then it's onto lots of new and exciting projects. There is still more to come.

That's all for now. 

In short

Okay, this week I have been busy updating quite a few things. So let's get to it. In this blog post we will be talking about:

• My latest game jam - still waiting on the final compiled game from the coders
• A new collaboration - M4 in use with updates to come at a later date
• My journey with Tumblr has now come to an end
• Update to CV - Yet again I have updated my CV

Want to know more? Why have I needed to update my CV again? Keep reading.

Progress update

I'm going to be honest, I haven't done too much this week in terms of my main two projects. That is not yet anyway.

So what have I done? I have completed my robot models along with occupying models and will be looking to texture these within Substance Painter and animate them this week ready for rendering in V-Ray.

As for my military environment, I have decided to use World Machine and remade the base height map and increased the overall scale for my environment surrounding the main base. I will be quickly implementing this new approach into my Unreal scene soon, I feel that using this way gives my environment a more believable looking when compared to the base Unreal landscape tools.

Speaking of the military. I am now collaborating with a coder from a past game jam on a shooter featuring my M4 Carbine model found here. How does a Zombie first-person shooter sound?

It's been and gone. Over the weekend I was taking part in what are now monthly game jams. The theme for this one was "The Easter Bunny", you know because Easter is here. Anyway someone from our group decided, why not make a dating simulator?

We agreed on our roles and got on with it. For this game I was in charge of UI UX, creating all the different screens for the game. Its a shame I can't really show you too much in terms of gameplay but I will drop this image here. Don't look into it too much though. This game isn't as cute as it looks.

Gameplay to come next week... hopefully.

A new focus - UI / UX in games

Onto the main topic I want to cover in this post. If you haven't seen already I have been making a few changes around different areas of my brand this week. Starting with my blogging time on Tumblr coming to an end. I was already thinking about switching to Blogger as mentioned before but I wasn't thinking it was going to be as soon as this. One thing that changed my mind, that fact that when viewing my Tumblr page, you could no longer see my posts. Why? There was just white space where they should be. This wasn't just a one-off either, I couldn't even see my posts when it came to trying to edit them, let alone view them on my site. This was the final nail in the coffin, so I am now using Blogger to create my posts. You can view my Blogger page but all posts will still be on my hub website, ArtStation.

Next, I have chosen to move my specialisation away from 3D prop art and animation & more towards UI. I feel this has been coming for a while but I just haven't decided to take the plunge until now. Don't worry, if you love my 3d work it's not disappearing anytime soon and I will still be adding new pieces every now and again as I realise UI/ UX design within games is quite niche, so it may need to be more of a side endeavour. Never the less it is safe to say that a lot more of what I do will be designed to improve my UI UX art.

Leading me to my CV update, you can now find an updated version on my CV both on LinkedIn and ArtStation to reflect this change in career path and specialisation. Why not take a look? Here. And this leads me on nicely to my next and final announcement for this blog post...

New UI/ UX Project added to ArtStation!

You should all know by now that I have been completing a career mentoring scheme over the past five months. Through this, I managed to gain some work experience. You can now see what I have been working on. This project is part of a brief I was helping work towards for a company (name redacted, can't be publically named yet). It features me creating a mobile interface based on the website concept already created by my career mentor. You can find out more on ArtStation.

That's all for now. See you next week.

In short

Over this last week, I have been creating various different animations for my projects through the use of motion capture, I was lucky enough to have got to use a studio for this and is something I am really excited to see the end result of. Also, game jams are back! Want to know more? Keep reading.

Progress update

Like mentioned in the intro, over this last week I have been working with motion capture to bring a more realistic side to my character animations within my two projects. Plus its something really cool to get the chance to do. Below is a quick video of want I got up to. Let's just say a little imagination is needed.

Anyway, now we have all had a laugh. I want to explain the ideas behind some of the animations. A lot are your basic running and walking but feature props like a brush or bottle. I used these as a replacement to a 3d model that would be used in the final animations. For example, the brush translates to a rifle and the bottle a football.

That's not all I've been doing though, as usual, I have been working on my two projects. First off I have started the creation of my final 3d models for my military scene along with working on other materials. This time back in Substance Designer. One of the main materials I have been working on is the mesh featured within fencing and the military gabion boxes. you can see renders of my materials below.

Over this coming week, I will be looking to be finishing up the animation for my visual effects project and continue working on creating a playable prototype for my military base level.

Game Jams are back!

Okay, so for some of you that may have been following me for a while now, you may know that towards the end of last year I started to take part in game jams with one of the societies within university. We took a break for a while over the festive period and holidays. Now they're back but with a change, they will only be happening once a month and will be featured on Itch.io here.

Here you will be able to see the games we make for this upcoming game jam on 23 - 24 March. I will also be posting an update on this after it has finished as usual. So stay tuned for that and much more on my blog and website.

That's all for now. See you next week.

In short

This week I have moved in Unreal with my Military Base project and started setting everything up in order to build up my environment. Not much has changed for my other project but one this that has... I am now on Blogger and over the next couple of weeks will be using this platform to write all my posts. For more information keep reading.

Progress update

You can see, I have also started work on creating materials for this project and gone about setting up a master material within Unreal, in which all my material instances will be based off. This will allow me to edit and customise my materials easier. Below you can see a material I have created within Quixel Mixer. These past two weeks I learnt that the beta for Mixer was now free to use (beta available for free here). So I thought I would give it a try. Surprisingly it is pretty intuitive and easy to learn, only having access to four default materials though was quite annoying. Anyway learning this software and using it was something really fun, especially seeing the results. One of which is the dry desert dirt I made after doing quite a bit of customising and "mixing" pun intended, different materials together to create a really believable and realistic looking texture for my ground plane.

New blog location

On to the blog update. I am now using Blogger to create my blog posts and will be experimenting with Google's blog hosting platform over the coming weeks. I will still be looking to upload these blog posts to Tumblr over this experimentation period but if all goes well I will be moving my posts to this new platform. So, what does all this mean for you, my viewer? Nothing really as of yet, if you're viewing this on Tumblr you will still be able to see all my posts but this may change in the future. If you're viewing this on my website danielrhodes.artstation.com, nothing will change, ever. There will be a few updates to how I structure my posts but all my posts no matter which platform I use, will be posted here for your viewing pleasure.

Here we go again

So I have two new projects I am working on and I’ll be showing you what they are as well as a quick look at the progress I have made so far. 

First, we have my CGI animation project. My idea with this is as follows. I want to create quite a funny animation that is based towards the world cup and all the hype that “it’s coming home” last year.  For this I am going to have a small humanoid robot moving across the screen, kicking a football and holding a trophy. The idea is that this robot (England) would be the main focus, with the camera zooming in and following him. Then a sudden change with the camera switching to an “army” of other similar robots (other countries) chasing the first. I want to have a bit of fun with this project. Below is an image of the backdrop I have taken for this animation to take part in, just to give you more of a visual reference.

Next up, we have the main project I will be focusing on for the next 2-3 months. A small desert military camp environment mainly focused around a firing range. Based on modern military and will be using a collection of different modular assets, such as sandbags, to help build up the scene. I then want to take this further and use this environment to showcase a small game concept that includes a seamless blend of in-game minimalist UI and real-time animation at a weapon bench. Using the M4 I created, I will create some animations for attaching a range of different attachments to the weapon along with different camouflage options. I will be using Unreal to showcase all this and I want to make this a short playable experience to make my work more intractable. This is gonna be a lot of work and I have started by blocking out my environment (see post’s main image). 

With all this said I have a lot of work to do, so back to it. See you in my next post - hopefully, next week.